January 19, 2011

Does the old man have 6 books in him? There are 2 more volumes of "Chronicles" to come. I loved Volume 1. A third book will be a compilation of dialogue from his "Theme Time" radio show (so that's something that doesn't need to be written). What are the other 3 books? Photographs, letters, song lyrics... coffee table type gift books. How hard can it be, really? Writing Volumes 2 and 4 of "Chronicles" will be difficult. I'm not suggesting he's cashing in and taking us for a ride. 8-figures? Sure. Give it to him.

"Eight figures? Seems like a lot, but hey if he can get someone to pay him that, more power to him."

Eight figures seems too high. I doubt it all would be in advance as you never know what you'll get with Dylan. The first book he got an advance for was "Tarantula" which was a mess and didn't sell well. "Chronicles" on the hand was a good read and sold well.

OK, I am sure that Meade could do a decent Bob Dylan impersonation, but can The Professor do a believable Joan Baez? I believe she can. They should try out the duet for American Idol. I bet they get better ratings than Bristol Palin. Their act can also bring in other material like yesterday's Battle Hymn of Palin duet. Can you imagine the phone votes that would get them.

Why not? That's the objective of a lot of professions, especially being an entertainer, and most of all, one who writes lyrics that are purposefully ambiguous and subjective. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it is his shtick, and he's been exceptional at it, unless you believe in magical beings.

No, but you are spending your time hanging out and posting messages in a thread about a subject you claim to have no interest in. That hardly backs up your claim that you "don't have any interest or time for Dylan mania."

I wonder how many more albums he has in them? One part of me measures time in terms of Dylan albums. We're still struggling in the Together Through Life Era; things used to be so much better in the Love and Theft era.

No, but you are spending your time hanging out and posting messages in a thread about a subject you claim to have no interest in. That hardly backs up your claim that you "don't have any interest or time for Dylan mania."

The mania with Dylan interests me to the limited extent of replying in this blog.

I'm not really expressing like or dislike of Dylan. I find the obsession with him a little weird. When I read Althouse's depictions of him, I also find that (like a lot of Dylan maniacs), she's attributed the invention of entire styles of music to Dylan that have been in the folk repertoire for hundreds of years.

She's also imagined that Dylan invented a sexual moral system that is pretty standard for Eastern European Jews. Certainly, Dylan does a good job of stating that sexual moral system.

One of the stranger expressions of Dylan mania is Althouse's belief that Dylan is some sort of spokesman for feminism. I'm really puzzled by that one.

But, I guess the Prophet's words are open to limitless interpretation.

...she's attributed the invention of entire styles of music to Dylan that have been in the folk repertoire for hundreds of years.

Well I don't know about a lot of that other stuff, but Dylan's been doing things that were never dreamed up in the folk repertoire. Not to mention that he just basically improved the folk repertoire even as he went beyond it.

Every now and then someone comes along who changes everything. In Russia, according to Solzhenitsyn, they used to say "we all came out of The Overcoat."

Someday they'll probably be saying "We all came out of The Man in the Long Black Coat."